‘Crisis Coalition had become ungovernable’

Financial Gazette News Editor, Maggie Mzumara (MM), spoke to former Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) board chairman Dewa Mavhinga who presents his version of events on why he resigned from the 82-member coalition.

MM: I would like to understand the genesis of the matter which then led to your resignation. What events led to that? Why do think it’s best for you off the scene? And what is the way forward for the organisation?

DM: This is my letter of resignation from Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition which I issued on November 17, 2014, and which addresses the genesis of the matter that led to my resignation, why I resigned and what I proposed as way forward for the organisation: Resignation from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Board
(Harare, November 17, 2014) – With immediate effect, I am stepping down from the post chairperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition board for the following reasons:

1) Repeated attempts over the year to uphold organisational core values of good governance, transparency and accountability have met with resistance from secretariat. Also, the deep mistrust and lack of unity of purpose in the board makes it untenable for effective leadership of the coalition.

2) In the best interests of the coalition and of my convictions, I see it fit to step aside and hope that coalition members, with assistance from credible coalition elders uninvolved in the current challenges, and the heads of CSO (civil society organisations) coalitions, will take the necessary immediate steps to return the coalition to its founding values, harmonise genuine membership and convene a legitimate meeting to address governance challenges confronting the coalition.

3) As civil society, we are a national force whose positive values and systems of governance must always be above reproach. Our relevance and role in building strong democratic institutions is defined by our capacity to strictly adhere to our core values of accountability, good governance, gender equality and human rights respect.

4) I am stepping aside immediately to stop smear campaigns, that this struggle for institutional values is just about personal interests. We condemn in the strongest terms the use of violence in all forms and the politicisation of administrative issues and now realise that the only way to save the best interests of the organisation is to step aside as I hereby do now.

5) As a way forward, and in the best interests of the organisation, I recommend the adoption in total of the original recommendations by the gender committee including that the entire board and senior secretariat management should step down and allow a process led by impartial, neutral people to lead a transformation process for the coalition.

Dewa Mavhinga, Former Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition board chairperson.

MM: Is it true that there was some pre-existing bad blood between you and Lewanika?

DM: Talk of bad blood or a personal vendetta between myself and Mcdonald Lewanika is a deliberate distortion of the truth which has been deployed conveniently to take attention away from clear corporate governance failings at Crisis Coalition. In order to address the conspiracy theory that I was pursuing a personal agenda against Lewanika, I never took any decision in my individual capacity, and most importantly, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition board decision on October 10, 2014 not to renew Mcdonald Lewanika’s fixed term employment contract when it expires on December 31, 2014 was a collective majority board decision which was based on serious governance issues disclosed in an external audit report for 2013 by Baker Tilly Gwatidzo which included ZIMRA (the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) tax evasion for 11 out of 12 months in 2013 resulting in the organisation being fined over US$22, 000 in penalties.

For an NGO (non-governmental organisation) relying solely on donor funds, and working to uphold the highest standards of accountability and good governance, failure to remit government taxes like PAYE (Pay As You Earn) that is deducted from employee salaries is totally unacceptable. Which donor condones that and funds the payment of penalties to the amount of US$22, 000? How does one account for failure to remit money to NSSA (the National Social Security Authority), to medical aid and to Old Mutual Pension schemes the entire year?

I challenge anyone who is professional and objective, and who might believe in the personal vendetta conspiracy theory to try and be objective and impartially consider the facts at hand. If your employee in charge of the organisation is responsible for deducting PAYE from salaries of all employees but fails to remit tax to ZIMRA in one year and is fined US$22, 000, would you renew the contract of that employee when it expires?

Crisis Coalition donors should not be gullible enough to believe cheap propaganda about bad blood between me and Lewanika, they should ask the tough questions including about where the money to pay huge ZIMRA penalties came from and where the PAYE money deducted from employees went as it did not go to ZIMRA.

In the absence of a comprehensive forensic audit it would be seriously naïve for anyone to believe that the majority of Crisis Coalition members attending the December 2013 AGM (annual general meeting) would vote me into office just to settle a personal score.

Initially when Lewanika led a head-hunting process in 2010 to persuade me to join Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition as regional coordinator based in South Africa for two years we disagreed six months before end of my contract and parted amicably and I happily returned to my base in London.

The governance problem that was there from the time when Lewanika was the board chairperson of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and moved from that post directly to become director of the organisation, and when I left secretariat and later returned as board chairperson, and when Joy Mabenge moved from the board to join secretariat – the problem was of potential conflict of interest which my board and all Crisis members decisively dealt with in the organisational constitution when we agreed to bar board members from joining secretariat within five years of leaving the board and vice versa no secretariat member can join the board within five years of leaving the secretariat.

Finally, I resigned from my post as chairperson of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition because I could see that Lewanika and friends wanted to paint the serious governance failings a personal vendetta issue for me and not a major accountability and transparency breach. So I decided to follow my conscience and walk away believing that if donors choose to turn a blind eye to the wanton abuse of their funds then it is their choice.

In corporate governance, if you whistle-blow that you do not agree with what is happening you must then walk away, you cannot stay on if your efforts at reform are resisted. The atmosphere at Crisis Coalition had become so highly politicised and toxic that my continued stay and leadership had clearly become untenable. So I left.

MM: (Are you saying) Lewanika was in some way gunning to oust you?

DM: I agree with Lewanika that he has many friends in civil society and the donor community – friends who have naturally chosen friendship ahead of accountability. When the Crisis Coalition board decided not to renew Lewanika’s contract, a number his friends directly told me that they would not allow Lewanika to be relieved of his duties because he was nice to them and they felt there should be a compromise to extend his contract and allow him to leave on his own terms.

A number of Lewanika’s friends on the board and in Crisis membership quickly resolved to make Crisis ungovernable until I leave the organisation. Within 48 hours of the Crisis board deciding not to renew Lewanika’s contract, 10 Bulawayo organisations wrote to me collectively withdrawing their membership from Crisis Coalition. The timing of their withdrawal clearly pointed to efforts by Lewanika to apply blackmail pressure on the board to reverse its decision on his contract. It was clear that Crisis members were being mobilised on the basis of the personal vendetta agenda to pass a vote of no confidence in me and then immediately reverse the board decision not to renew Lewanika’s contract.

Instead of pursuing clearly laid out and proper grievance procedures for an employee with concerns of his contract, Lewanika chose a political route to get rid of independent members of the board to replace them with fairly malleable board members that he had gotten accustomed to over the years.

Clearly it would have been easier for the board to sweep things under the carpet and pretend that Crisis Coalition is a beacon of accountability, good governance and transparency, but it would have meant living a lie in pursuit of convenience and not conviction. Leadership is not about making easy decisions, but rather about making the right decisions.

MM: What really is the politics behind the problems at Crisis Coalition (that you refer to)?

DM: Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is a highly politicised organisation. In February this year I presented to Crisis members a 10-point plan to reposition Crisis Coalition in which I emphasised that: “The Crisis Coalition’s categorical guiding principle is non-partisanship. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition will actively work to correct the wrong perception that the Coalition is aligned to a political party and reassert that it is a strictly independent platform for civil society.”

This plan was accepted by Crisis members and this might have disappointed some political players who expected civil society to be an appendage of them. At political party level I do not believe any party actively took a side in the conflict at Crisis, but I know that certainly some individual members of political parties have vested interests in controlling Crisis and civil society in general, and therefore our board position on non-partisanship represented a threat to their plans of control.

MM: Can you expound on the vested interests by political parties? Which parties and how exactly?

DM: I have no evidence of meddling and involvement of political parties at an institutional level, but I am aware that a few individuals within the MDC-Renewal Team actively opposed my leadership on account of my position on non-partisanship of civil society because they hoped to exert partisan control over Crisis Coalition and also on financial resources that could then be channelled through civil society to the political party.

There were rumours which I could not independently confirm, that Gorden Moyo, a perceived civil society god father and an MDC-Renewal (Team) member was instrumental in the pulling out of 10 Bulawayo organisations from Crisis Coalition in order to indirectly pressure the Crisis board to reverse the decision not to renew or extend Lewanika’s contract of employment. In that matrix I was portrayed as a supporter of the MDC-T who would stand in the way of an alliance between MDC-Renewal and Crisis Coalition.

MM: You insinuate that tax deductions were made but they did not make their way to ZIMRA, where did they go? As chairperson did you interrogate this issue?

DM: The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition board that I led as chairperson came into office on December 13, 2013, so we got into office when tax evasion had taken place in 2013. Our first task as a board was to immediately put a stop to tax evasion, and to insist that all tax obligations must be met without failure.

Yes, under normal circumstances tax evasion of failing to remit PAYE which has been deducted from employees is serious fraud which demands immediate forensic investigation, however, given the perception of personal vendetta, as a board we agreed to only to act on proven audit reports whose results only became available to us on October 10, 2014.

Because the tax evasion took place before I became Crisis board chairperson, only the Crisis director, Lewanika, who authorised and presided over the tax evasion can explain where the PAYE deductions went.

If the previous Crisis board led by Okay Machisa authorised the tax evasion then they must also be held accountable. As chairperson I questioned all these things, on January 25, 2014, the Crisis board collectively condemned this failure to pay taxes as not being in the best interests of the organisation.

MM: And the monies to pay the penalties where did they come from?

DM: As far as I know, the penalties and various debts the Crisis Coalition owes, totalling US$124, 000 have not been fully paid. We authorised the organisation to enter into payment plans with various institutions including ZIMRA, and it might take 24 months or more for the debts to be cleared. As a board we also authorised a 55 percent salary cut for senior Crisis employees in order to live within our means and be able to pay back the money owed.

MM: (And) you deny that there was anything personal in your conduct and your work at the coalition?

DM: There was nothing personal in my conduct or work at Crisis Coalition, this is why I made it a rule that I would never personally make any decisions, but in all times, I allowed the full board to deliberate on issues and decide collectively. The decision not to renew Lewanika’s contract was a majority board decision, and not an individual Dewa Mavhinga decision.

I fully agreed with the decision in the interests of accountability and good governance. I took a personal decision to resign from Crisis Coalition leadership because I could see that the simple-minded might believe in the lies that I was on a personal mission to settle personal scores.

Now that I am out of the way, I am sure it will be easier for like-minded people to find common ground and agree that tax evasion and misuse of donor funds are small matters in the larger scheme of things. But as for me, my conscience is my master, and I choose which groups I want to be associated with, so that I can sleep peacefully at night knowing that I stood for my convictions.

MM: Are you at liberty to mention friends of Lewanika on the board or membership who specifically told you they would not allow for him to be let go?

DM: At the board meeting of October 10, 2014, where, by majority decision, the board decided not to renew Lewanika’s employment contract, three board members (vice chairperson Samukeliso Khumalo; spokesperson, Mfundo Mlilo; and committee member, Mehluli Dube) all stormed out of the meeting vowing to do everything to reverse the decision, they all declared: “Let the games begin.” Mehluli Dube went as far as to tear up board documents and to briefly lock other board members in the boardroom. Financial Gazette